Destashing - Stash & Treasure Market

I am so not organised for tomorrow's Stash & Treasure Market.  So much to measure and put prices on.  I should've started this earlier in the week, I didn't realise how little I would be able to get done today (it's been a trainwreck).  Looks like I'll be chuffing away this evening.

Destash Teaser

I've been pulling fabrics from my stash in preparation for my destash sale at the Stash & Treasure Market this Saturday.  Besides quilting cottons there's laminate, voile, corduroy, dupion silks & Vintage Silk Japanese Obi's plus patterns, zips, knitting supplies.  You can't even see it all, the blue bag in the back is full of DS stuff!  I'll give you more detail later after I've sorted it all out.

Fabric-A-Brac

I didn't mean to leave it so long between posts! I've got some really exciting stuff to show you though.  Last Sunday I went to the Fabric-A-Brac market for the first time.  Even though I've actually decided to do some destashing of fabric I do not love anymore (more on that later), I was still on the look out for bargains and treasures.  I am very pleased to say that I found both.

Fabric-A-Brac was held in the historic Petersham Town Hall.  Apparently they filmed Strictly Ballroom here which I was surprised to find out since I went to primary school nearby and we used to have our school dance concerts there.  There were a lot of sellers keen to destash fabric, patterns, notions etc.  There was a band Evan and The Brave and even Black Star Pastry selling some yummy baked goods.

As I walked in the first table I went up to had a huge box of FQ's.  Straight away I spotted a FQ of Amy Butler Coriander but someone else was handling it and I thought, bummer she's taking that.  After she paid and left the Coriander was still sitting there, she hadn't bought it at all so I snapped it up for fear of anyone else grabbing it first.  I rifled through and even though this seller had heaps of stuff there wasn't anything that really grabbed me.  $4 later, and on I moved to the next table.

I ran into Belinda and Zoe, kindy Mum's from school.  Belinda turned me around and sent me straight to a table at the front I had walked past.  Her words were "go there NOW".  What a good friend, there was heaps of great stuff for sale on this table.  I had to think about budget and restraint so I only walked away with these items:  

• 1.5m (54") of AMH Folksy flannel $10
• 25cm (10") strip of Fun@Hart for Freespirit A Dog's Life $2
• 90cm (1yard) Echino Glasses $6
• FQ of Liberty $6.  

Seriously, these ladies were destasing heaps of Liberty FQs for $6 and lots and lots of other really cool fabrics.

Finally I was almost at the end when I spotted this blue fabric hanging on a rack.  It reminded me heaps of the Coriander or a Florence Broadhurst fabric.  It has a really beautiful sheen and it was big 2m x 1.5m (78" x 54").  The lady selling was lovely and told me I could have it for $10.  Still, I procrastinated and said that I wanted to keeping looking around and come back.  Literally, I was at the top of the last aisle, I did a quick scan of those tables and didn't see anything that made me want to stop and look so I hightailed it back and snatched it up before anyone else.  I love it, it's so beautiful, the colour has amazing depth and it's just the right weight of cotton for quilting (I suspect it might be a lighter home dec fabric because of the 54" width?).  I don't even know what I'm going to do with it but it's such a big piece that I would love to see it on the back of a quilt.  Anyway, after some morning tea I went to say goodbye to Amy.  As usual she wanted me to show her what I bought.  When she saw the big floral she took one look at the selvedge and told me that the font looked vintage.  Really?  Really?  

So I came home and started Googling.  I couldn't find anything to do with that particular fabric collection.  I keep finding tidbits here and there about Greeff, he was a designer or manufacturer or both but had fabrics printed by Warner and Sons.  It looks like Warners and Sons mill closed in 1971?  So I'm trying to solve this mystery and date this fabric.  Anyway,  I have emailed the Warner Archival Trust to see whether they could give me any information.  How cool though, I'm really pleased with this treasure even if doesn't end up being 40 years old or worth a zillion dollars.

"Ivy Geranium" from a "GARDEN PARTY" Copyright by Greeff Printed in England for Warners and Sons

So all up I spent:  $38.  To put it into perspective, retail prices of quilting cottons in Australia are approx $24/metre, Liberty is $56 (which is why I do buy most of mine online from the US).

IN OTHER NEWS:  Thank you to everyone who voted for me in the SMS Fat Quarter Idol, I did not win.  Congratulations to Tanya!  This is the last week of the competition so your last chance to play along.  The theme is "My Style" so anything goes really and if you're already on Pinterest it's pretty easy to put your bundle together.  Check out the Sew Mama Sew blog for details on how to enter.

do.Good Stitches More x and + blocks

What an interesting week we've had!  The eldest went back to school on Tuesday for one day, Wednesday was a national holiday for Anzac Day, and then we had two more days of school.  It was nice to have both boys at school/preschool for these two days.  I finally found some time to make a couple more Japanese x and + blocks.

I love how the new ones came out.  I found the fabric selection process really takes a long time for me.  I put together a bundle and then leave it for a day or two, when I come back to it I usually find something wrong (in this one's case I originally had the red and aqua teamed with purple but the backing fabric I chose wasn't big enough because it was from a 10" layer cake) so then I introduced the grey backing and then the black fabric worked better.  It looks a little bit more masculine but that's OK because I think the others lean a little more feminine (in my opinion anyway).

This one was also a last minute change in fabric.  Originally I had green, yellow and orange fabric bundled together but it wasn't doing it for me.  I really wanted to use purple and I don't have a lot of purple in my stash (lots of lilac though) so I decided to use this Joel Dewberry Heirloom fabric I've been hoarding for no purpose.  The orange and fishy background worked really well with it so the only thing from the original bundle was just the colour orange (not the actual fabrics I had started with).

Here are all my blocks together.  I found scrappy and gender neutral a real challenge since there were so many elements which meant you needed to have quite a lot of fabrics that worked together but also allowed the cross to stand out.  It was easier to limit my colour palette to just three or four colours.  I hope they blend OK with other blocks that are scrappier.  I also prefer the backgrounds that are understated, the multi-spot on the top right is just too busy.  It was a fun and simple block to make though and I will definitely like to make them again.

You can see more of these blocks in the do.Good Stitches Flickr pool.

I need your vote!

Click here to enlarge

I just saw over on Sew Mama Sew that I've made the top 10 finalists out of 200 entries!  Woo hoo!!  Now I need your vote, there are some pretty popular bloggers there so competition is going to be fierce especially if they have all their followers voting for them.  I hope I get votes because people actually like my bundle.  I am feeling unusually competitive right now!! :-)

If you have a moment would you mind heading over to SMS and voting for me, if you think I deserve it?

Here's a background on the competition.